List of prospective routes for Washington State (Seattle, Spokane: real estate market, 2015)

[garyrich2000]

This is an adaption of a reply I made earlier:

I spent a few days looking over various topographical, utility, and transportation maps of Washington, with the aim of creating the straightest route (to maximize speed) between ideal transportation hubs. What I found are a lot of foothills to navigate and certain areas we may want to tunnel as opposed to slowing down to make a turn. South of Olympia, there were 3 areas I wanted to spend more time studying.

1. Cascade Range East of Portland to Bellevue
Along the base of the Cascade Mountain Range there are several options for semi-straight line travel with some carving into hillsides and better negotiating position with land owners due to lower populations. Bellevue is a major distribution hub with excellent transportation infrastructure and a good choice for establishing a Bellevue to Spokane/Moses Lake route.
2. Slightly East of Portland/I-5 to Des Moines
Just like option 1 above, there are some valleys nested between foothills running North and South, also with a moderate amount of low population densities to minimize right of way headaches.

The key route here would be to enter Puget Sound near Hawks Prairie and establish an offshore hub between the Port of Seattle and Port of Tacoma. This location has good 100 year planning prospects where tunneling to Sea Tac Airport will be preferable for avoiding disruption within high population densities. Since much work has been done for planning expanded transportation on Highway 599, a lot of valuable environmental impact data is available for fast approval.

Additionally, infrastructure for building the 520 Floating Bridge pontoons have been paid for with public dollars and brings opportunities for lower cost bidding because a lot of overhead is already paid for. First, new mold designs would need to be created for safety and servicing of the Hyperloop tubes. Secondly, the skilled workforce, manufacturing site and engineering expertise is already available for building submersible pontoons that can be towed, sunk into place. Furthermore, these subsea segments would be linked together between permanent compression seals before pumping water out of the mid sections. A lot of knowledge on creating concrete structures in salt water is available from architects/engineers who have made bridges still standing after 100 years.

Similar concept below: https://video.search.yahoo.com/searc...1d&action=view

3. Pacific Coast Route(s) Portland to Port of Everett
Utilizing mass production to bring costs down, the submergible pontoons mentioned above would be placed below the silt of the Columbia River before turning north (and later south) toward Aberdeen/Hoquiam and enter Hood Canal via Shelton before tunneling through parts of North Kitsap Peninsula to an offshore hub in Everett. This route has beneficial logistics between naval bases if an added hub is placed near Bangor to transport, freight, shipyard workers, and other personnel. However, some freight would be restricted due to Homeland Security issues. Like the options above, right of way issues are reduced.

4 Pacific Coast Route(s) Portland to Port of Tacoma
As an alternative to option 3, establishing a hub at Aberdeen/Hoquiam allows a separate branching for military to Bangor and Everett and some tunneling to the Port of Tacoma. The nice thing about this option is increased opportunity for federal funding due to shared costs between military, cargo, and personal transport. Hoquiam/Aberdeen would experience rapid growth in their real estate markets and help support the development of Floating Windmill Farms expected to occur up and down the Pacific Coast sometime after the East Coast Offshore Windmill Farms start development.

5. Pacific Coast Route Portland to Port Townsend Hub
Similar to option 4, this route would travel under Columbia river and travel up the coast but turn at the Straight of Juan De Fuca before stopping at Port Townsend. From this North Kitsap County location, routes can branch North, East, and South with little worries about right of way access. Economies of scale would bring benefit of a sustained manufacturing infrastructure and employment for continued routes to other locations. In addition to economies of scale, the pontoons may serve as an affordable, highly protective shell in areas of increased risk to damage. Routing to Seattle/Everett/Bellingham/Vancouver B.C., Bellevue/Ellensburg/Spokane, and Bremerton/Tacoma/Olympia can be easily linked here

6. Puget Sound Route Everett/Bellingham/ Vancouver B.C.
With leveraged economies of scale, critical submerged pontoon placement and trenching areas of deep silt would face minimal right of ways because of the accessibility of our waterways. Continuing north from Everett some tunneling to connect Port Susan, Skagit Bay (Swinomish Channel), Padilla Bay, and Samish Bay offer the best straight away, to Bellingham, before continuing on to Vancouver B.C. via I-5 or along the coast.

[Hemlock140]

You do realize that the relatively tiny 2 mile tunnel between the Pioneer District and South Lake Union has only gone 1,500' in nearly 3 years, and is way above budget and behind schedule?

[PS90]

Originally Posted by Hemlock140

You do realize that the relatively tiny 2 mile tunnel between the Pioneer District and South Lake Union has only gone 1,500' in nearly 3 years, and is way above budget and behind schedule?

Agreed.

OP, what evidence currently exists that supports WADOT's ability to do something like any of these projects without screwing them up while spending way too much taxpayer money?

[Diana Holbrook]

Building something massive and expensive that no one has asked for... underground, in a seismically hazardous area with a high water table...

It may be the worst idea I've ever heard, but I am cautious to give out such high billing to anything these days.

[Olympian2]

I am too busy to concoct a clever sarcastic comment about how "Wow, we should tunnel likes moles, man!", so this will have to do for now:

"According to Oxford professor Bent Flyvbjerg, megaprojects in the past 70 years have consistently come in over budget while delivering less than half of their promised monetary benefit."

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